(AN: I do not own Pokémon, nor any of the creatures associate with it, I only own the characters I made and the story I made for them. Also, this is not my first story, I've made quite a few in the past that were left unfinished due to me giving up on them. I do not wish to do that with this story, as I have been planning it out for quite a while, however, updates do not have a schedule, they usually will be updated whenever I feel motivates to write. With all that, enjoy!)
Everything was red...
Each direction, every object, every tree, bush, plant, it was either stained or drench with red.
I was...running... I think?
Was I being chased? I heard footsteps, but were they coming in my direction? Or were they going away? I was hoping the latter... I think...
I was in pain... that I knew for sure. My whole body felt like it was slowly fading, like the pain was so unbearable that it was giving up.
Then... I heard a loud shifting sound, almost like a gun shot, then it went silent.
All of a sudden I felt a massive sensation of pain in my chest and back, something had landed on me, I couldn't move.
I knew I was on the grass, I could feel it, but I couldn't manage to lift myself up, something was on me, impaling me almost.
I looked down, I saw the grass below me turning even redder, now I knew was it was pure blood.
My blood...
/
"...Stable...no... several wounds... fatal... months...".
I heard a voice... but I couldn't make out the full sentences. I also couldn't see, it was pitch black, but my eyes were just closed. Just gotta open them...
They wouldn't open. I kept trying and trying but my eyes wouldn't open up, now I started to panic, had I gone blind? Had my eyes been swollen shut? Why wouldn't my eyes open?
"...Alive... heal..."
Sounded like doctors? I assmumed so since they were talking about healing. We're they talking about me? It made sense since everything still felt weary. I tried again to open my eyes, but they wouldn't budge.
"...three... more..."
Three what? Weeks? Months? Years? I was so confused, my body started to feel shaky, I couldn't move, or see, or breathe. Was I dying? Is this what that felt like? I heard a faint beeping sound, it was going at a rapid pace.
"...Red... unstable... die...!".
I heard yelling, it sounded like people giving orders. I felt a bunch of things touch me all at once. Something was repeatedly pressing against my chest, another was moving one of my arms up and down. What was happening? Were they trying to keep me alive? That means I really was dying! I tried to do something, anything to keep from fading out. Then, something sharp was jabbed into my shoulder, I felt it so suddenly that it made me want to scream...
Then, I did.
"AAAAUGGGGGGH!".
My eyes shot open, my breathing was going at a rapid speed, I could feel my heart starting racing just as fast. The only thing I could hear was the sound of my own screaming, but it didn't sound like me. It sounded like an animal, one I had never heard, but I knew it was me screaming.
I looked around, I saw doctors, all of them crowded around me, though they all looked more like nurses than doctors, and they all looked nearly identical. They looked larger than they should have, larger than me for sure. I looked at my hands, no... they weren't hands anymore?! They looked fuzzy and red, but not red with blood, they almost looked like paws. My chest wasn't MY chest anymore either. It was covered in fur just like my hands, but it had a large bandaged wrapped around the center. What had happened? I couldn't even tell if I was screaming anymore.
"Give him the anesthesia, now!".
Suddenly another thing was jabbed into my shoulder. My screaming stopped, everything went dead silent. The doctors all were just staring at me, everything was almost in slow motion. Everything slowly came back to the pitch black. No... not again... I didn't... want to go back to the dark...
It...hurts too much...
/
I shot awake again, my head was in a daze, I knew I was alive, but It was honestly getting hard to tell.
I tried to remember anything... I remembered going to bed one night... then the blood... everything after that was a blur...
My name... Rye... At least I remembered that... At least I think that's my name, as far as I could remember it was.
Then I remember the previous events, I quickly looked around. Yep. Still in a hospital... so that wasn't a dream.
Then I remember the most important thing, I looked down at myself. I wasn't me anymore, my legs were wider and stubbier, with three small toes at my feet. I could move them, they were mine. Same with my arms, they were white up to my...paws, which now were red on the outer side of them, with three stubby fingers inside. Then I looked at my chest, it was mostly white, but it had a red streak going down in an almost zig-zag shape, but it was cut off by the large bandaged wrapped around my belly. I used my paws and touched the top of my head. Yep. More fur, just as I suspected. I also could feel two long, furry ears.
I then really felt my new senses at work. My eyesight felt almost enhanced, I felt like I could see so much clearer than I ever could before. My ears and nose weren't left out, I could hear things from different places everywhere, and I could smell a million things at once practically. My whole body felt like it had been enhanced, minus the pain. Then I felt the most strangest thing, it felt like something was attached to the back of me, I looked behind myself and saw a large, two ended fluffy tail, I couldn't exactly control it's movements, but I could feel that it was a part of me.
Then it hit me, the markings, the ears, the paws, the tail. It all connected.
I had all of the features of a Zangoose.
Zangoose was one of my favorite Pokémon, I would catch one whenever I could when playing the games, but I never thought I'd become one. At least a hundred new thoughts slammed into my head, how did this happen? Is this just a really realistic dream? Would I ever wake up? Would I be stuck like this?
Just trying to comprehend all of this made my head spin, I had to take these one at a time.
It was then I noticed I wasn't sitting up all the way, I was leaned against a pillow. I tried sitting up, but this caused an unbearable pain in my chest, forcing me to lay back down. This told me that my wounds were still fresh, meaning it hadn't been that long since I got them, I just wished I could remember how I did.
Before I could get the chance to think further, one of the nurses walked in. Now that I could really focus, I could make her out as Nurse Joy from the games. So that would mean I'm in a Pokémon center? I remember them looking more pink in the games and in the anime.
"Hello Zangoose, glad to see you're awake. How are you feeling?".
I didn't know if replying was wise, so I stayed dead silent and just sort of stared at her. I noted that she had confirmed I was a Zangoose.
"Not a talker huh?". She gave a light sigh and placed a notepad on the table next to my bed. "I guess I can't be too upset, you're probably still shaken up about all that happened to you in the past few days".
So something did happen, but what? I remembered a lot of blood, but that's all I could recall from before I got here.
"My name is Nurse Christina, I'll be the one looking after you for your stay here". She said with a smile.
Christina? So her name wasn't Joy like in the games? Did all the Nurses actually have names?
Christina reached her hand out to pet me, it looked a little large up close, but when she touched my head and started rubbing it, it didn't feel so bad, it felt good almost. I felt weird being petted, but I was a Zangoose, it was supposed to be normal, right?
"Don't worry, I'll be sure to keep you well-cared for!".
It didn't excatly feel like she was being honest, I couldn't tell if she was talking because she cared or because it was her job, I always hated when workers did that. I moved my head away from her, telling her I didn't want to be petted.
She seemed a little upset at that. "H-hey don't worry.. I'm sure everything will turn out fine!".
I ignored her, I felt a little bad for it, she was just doing her job, but I couldn't feel any honesty in her tone of voice, she almost just seemed robotic, like she was reading from a script. Ignoring wasn't nice, no matter how much I hated these types of workers, but it felt... So fake.
She quietly sighed and left the room.
I tried to lay myself on my side facing towards the door, it hurt, but I managed it. I was half-tempted to look at the wounds under my bandages, but I passed knowing that it wouldn't be very pretty. I tried to position myself in a more comfortable way, which was easier said then done, I tried to lean myself on my left elbow in a way where I was putting less weight on my mid-section, with some struggle, I found a position where I wasn't in complete pain.
I looked around the room, there were two more beds next to mine, both of which were empty, though I could smell two new scents I hadn't smelled before from them, I could tell it wasn't Christina's, it could've been another nurse or another Pokémon, I wasn't sure how to distinguish those smells yet. I heard constant footsteps in the hallways, as well as the sounds of doors opened and closing, and wells clanking against the tile floors. The world felt like a new experience, just these common sounds felt like new wonders to me.
I yawned, I felt exhausted despite having slept for so long. That made me think, how long was I asleep for? And how long have I been like this? Had I been a Zangoose for awhile and I just hadn't been awake to notice it? It I know it couldn't have only been a day, because a night had already passed. If I was a Zangoose, that meant other Pokemon were here, would I be able to talk to them? Did Nurse Christina know I was human? Was being turned from human to Pokemon normal in this world? Was the opposite possible?
I had way to many questions that all just made me even more exhausted. I decided that I'd tried to sleep and think about it tommorow. I slowly closed my eyes, as I drifted off to slumber, I wondered... What is my future here?... and...
Is it even my choice?...